STATEMENT 


ON 



MADE TO THE 


LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 

MAY 17, 1886 

* By the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

, • vX ^ .-OO * * - ' -* 

v * _^_'_ 

Hon. JOHN 8. WALKEE, 

President Legislative Assembly. 

Mb. President :— 

On the sixth instant I was requested by resolution of Hon¬ 
orable Member for Lahaina to state to the House “whether 
the present regulations for Chinese coming into the country 
have been carried out since they were promulgated and 
whether any more than the prescribed number have come in 
at any time. ’ To this I made an immediate reply stating 
at the same time that the Departmental Report which I was, 
as Minister of Foreign Affairs about to present to the Legis¬ 
lature would supply still further information on the subject. 
As I promised still more precise information to dispel any 
misapprehensions as to the exact bearing of the Regulations 
controlling Chinese Immigration I now present to the House 
a short history of the action of the Government in this 
matter. 

The Cabinet Resolution under the authority of which the 
Regulations have been issued was passed on the 13th of 
July 1883 and runs as follows: 



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RESOLUTION PASSED IN CABINET COUNCIL, JULY 

13th, 1883. 

“Resolved, that the Minister of Foreign Affairs be author¬ 
ized to notify the Government of China and the authorities 
“of the British Colony of Hong Kong that limited Chinese 
“immigration will be permitted to enter this Kingdom under 
“regulations issued from the Foreign Office. 

Under this permission was at first granted to certain 
steamship companies to bring in not more than 600 passen¬ 
gers during any three months. This number was calculated 
to replace the Chinese leaving here from time to time. The 
permission was not properly used by the companies to whom 
it was granted, After an interval of many months during 
which very few Chinese arrived, the whole 2,400 allowed 
for one year were brought to Honolulu in rapid succession 
in the Spring of 1884. The United States Government also 
raised the objection that the permission being only given to 
these Companies was a contravention of the Treaty of 1850. 
To meet the emergency the Regulations of March 1884 were 
made, and the system of passports was introduced. These 
Regulations are as follows: 


REGULATIONS OF MARCH 25th, 1884. 

No. 1. From this date permission will be granted to 
masters of vessels arriving at the port of Honolulu to land 
Chinese immigrant laborers, not exceeding twenty-five in 
all from any one vessel, that number to be in addition to, 
and exclusive of any Chinese passengers who may hold pass¬ 
ports as provided for in Regulation No. 2. 

No. 2. Passports enabling their holders to enter the 
ports of the Kingdom may be issued from the Foreign 
Office, Honolulu, or bv His Majesty’s Consul-General at 
Hong Kong: 

1.—To any Chinese resident in this Kingdom who may 



desire to visit any foreign country, and return there¬ 
from ; 

2- To the wives or other female relatives, and to the child¬ 
ren of Chinese now residing in the Kingdom, or who 
may be about to emigrate to this country under the 
provisions of Regulation No. 1. 

No. 3. A fee of One Dollar shall be charged for each 
passport issued in pursuance of the foregoing regulation. 

No. 4. All orders and instructions regulating Chinese 
Immigration to this country, heretofore issued from this 
Office', are hereby cancelled. 

Walter M. Gibson, 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
Foreign Office, Honolulu, March 25, 1884. 

His Majesty’s Consul-General at Hong Kong had in 
September 1883 received authority to issue passports to 
“persons of reputable character who have personally resided 
in these Islands, and to their wives and other members of 
their families who may be travelling under their care. " As 
many Chinese had left here intending to return before the 
Regulation of March 25th was issued, the Consul-General 
was allowed to issue passports to such persons on their pre¬ 
senting to him the outward passports obtained by them from 
the Custom House when leaving the Kingdom. When the 
Regulation became known there was a rush of Chinese to 
return to the country and altogether nearly 1200 persons 
obtained passports at Hotig Kong. The system being 
evidently abused by transfers of passports on which a check 
seemed to be almost impossible the Consul-General was in 
July last instructed not to accept Custom House passports 
any longer as evidence that the holders had resided here 

V O 

before. 

In September the new Regulations were issued, depriving 
laborers of the right to receive permits to return, and re¬ 
stricting the Consuls from giving passports to any but women 
and children. These Regulations are as follows: 


4 


REGULATIONS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 1885. 


By virtue of the authority conferred upon me by a 
Resolution of His Majesty in Cabinet Council passed on the 
13th day of July, 1883, I hereby make and proclaim the 
following Regulations for the admission of Chinese passengers 
entering this Kingdom: 

No. 1. From this date no vessel coming from a foreign 
country will be allowed to land more than twenty-five (25) 
Chinese passengers at any port in the Hawaiian Kingdom, 
unless the passengers in excess of that number are provided 
with passports entitling them to enter the Kingdom. 

No. 2. Passports entitling the holders to return to the 
Kingdom will be granted at the Foreign Office, Honolulu, 
to all persons of Chinese nationality now resident, or who 
may hereafter become resident, on these Island, who may 
desire to visit any foreign country, provided always that 
such persons have been engaged in trade or have conducted 
some industrial enterprise during at least one year of their 
residence here. No return passports will be given to 
Chinese laborers leaving the country. 

No. 3. Passports will be granted at the Foreign Office, 
Honolulu; also by His Majesty’s Consul General at 
Hong Kong, His Majesty,s Consul at Shanghae, and His 
Majesty’s Consul General at San Francisco, to any Chinese 
women desiring to come to the Islands, and to Chinese 
children whose parents are residing in the Kingdom, or 
who may not be of more than ten years of age. 

No. 4. Passports entitling the holder to enter the 
Kingdom will also be granted at the Foreign Office to such 
persons of Chinese nationality as the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs may deem it proper to admit to the Kingdom. 

No. 5. The fee for any passport issued under this 
regulation shall be two dollars (82). 

No. 6. The holders of passports issued under these 
regulations must have the same indorsed with the visa of 
the Consular representative of this Kingdom at any port at 
which he may embark on his return journey, and also at 


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any port at which he may stay more than twenty-four hours 
during such return journey. 

No. 7. The fee for the Consul’s visa of each passport 
shall be one dollar. 

No. 8. All orders and instructions regulating the incom¬ 
ing of Chinese into this Kingdom heretofore made and 
proclaimed are hereby rescinded, but nothing herein con¬ 
tained shall affect the validity of any passport issued at 
Hongkong before the proclamation there of these Regulations. 

Walter M. Gibson, 

Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
Foreign Office, Honolulu, Sept. 1, 1885. 


In February last the right hitherto given to introduce ‘25 
Chinese passengers in any vessel without passports was can¬ 
celled by the following Amended Regulation: 


REGULATION OF FEBRUARY 13, 1886. 


By virtue of the authority conferred upon me by a Resolu¬ 
tion of His Majesty , in Cabinet Council, passed on the 13tli 
day of July, A. D. 1883, I hereby make and proclaim the 
following Regulation in regard to the admission of Chinese 
passengers into this Kingdom, viz: 

From and after the first day of April, 1886, no Chinese 
passenger shall be allowed to land at any port in the 
H awaiian Kingdom unless such passenger be the bearer of 
a passport, in due form and legally issued to him or her 
under the provisions of the Regulations made and published 
by me on the first day of September, A. H. 1885, ‘for the 
control of Chinese Immigration;” and the provision in 
Regulation Number 1 of the aforesaid Regulations which 
allows the landing of not more than twenty-five Chinese 
passengers from any one vessel at any port in the Hawaiian 
Kingdom without passports, is hereby rescinded. 

Given under my hand and the Seal of the Hawaiian 
Kingdom, this eleventh day of February, A. E>. 1886. 

Walter M. Gibson, 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. Honolulu. 


L. S. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0 019 300 977.3 


The Chinese who have come to this country since the 
Regulations of March 25, 1884, were proclaimed in Hong¬ 
kong and Canton, have all been admitted in strict 
accordance with the above Regulations, with the exception 
of those to whom passports were granted under the special 
Regulation referred to in my Departmental Report, (seepage 
11 of the Report., and page cxxiii of the Appendix). The 

arrivals, as closely as can be ascertained from June 1, 1884, 
to April 30, 1886, have been as follows: 

Chinese holding return passports.1110 

Chinese holding passports from the Consul General at 

Hongkong.1147 

Chinese admitted last spring for Planters under Special 

Regulation. 874 

Chinese admitted under the Regulation which allowed 

any vessel to bring in twenty-live without passports. 1274 

Total for fifty-six ships.4405 

The steamship Rio de Janeiro, on her late arrival here, 
was the last vessel having the right to bring any Chinese 
passengers without passports. The passengers by the 

/jealandia and Gaelic all had passports with them, except 
Mr* Top Too, a member of the Honolulu firm of Yung Tick 
Chong A Co*, whose premises were destroyed in the recent 
fire and who, on hearing of the disaster, was obliged to take 
passage on the first steamer, relying very properly on 
receiving a passport from me under Regulation No. 4, which 
was framed to meet such exceptional cases as his. 

WALTER M. GIBSON, 

Minister of Foreign Affairs. 


foreign Office May 15, 1886. 
















